Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Greece, Dalmatia and beyond, Venice had expanded inland. The banner of the Lion of St
Mark flew across northeast Italy, from Gorizia to Bergamo.
These dynamic, independent-minded cities proved fertile ground for the intellectual and
artistic explosion that would take place across northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries
- an explosion that would come to be known as the Renaissance and the birth of the mod-
ern world. Of them all, Florence was the cradle and launch pad for this fevered activity, in
no small measure due to the generous patronage of the long-ruling Medici family.
